Kabul, August 25: Fraud allegations have cast doubt over the Afghan presidential election and threaten to undermine President Barack Obama’s Afghan strategy, at a time when casualties are rising and the top U.S. military officer acknowledges the situation is deteriorating.
U.S. officials had hoped Thursday’s balloting would bolster the legitimacy of the Afghan leadership, enabling it to confront the Taliban, combat corruption and accelerate Afghanistan’s development — all key goals of the Obama administration.
Instead, President Hamid Karzai’s opponents are accusing him of massive fraud, including ballot-stuffing and voter intimidation. His chief rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, has ruled out a postelection alliance with Karzai should the incumbent ultimately win.
Election officials said they will release preliminary returns from the vote on Tuesday, although the final result will not be known for weeks.
Both the Karzai and Abdullah campaigns have said preliminary reports suggest their candidate is ahead, raising concern that the release of partial figures could stoke tension and generate even more accusations of manipulation from the disappointed camp.
All that could lead to a protracted period of claims and counterclaims that could delay formation of a new administration and poison the political atmosphere at a time when the United States and its NATO partners are trying to bring together ethnic, political and social groups opposed to the Taliban in order to roll back the insurgency.
At the worst, the dispute could trigger clashes between rival camps similar to the wave of unrest that swept neighboring Iran after June’s disputed presidential election.
The fallout has been an embarrassment for U.S. and NATO officials, who were quick to declare the Afghan election a success even though the Taliban launched attacks in southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand and elsewhere. The upbeat comments were reminiscent of the Bush administration’s misplaced praise for the January 2005 election in Iraq — which is now generally recognized as having widened the gulf between Iraq’s religious groups and fueled the war.
“There’s no doubt that there have been irregularities during the polling day,” said Kai Eide, the U.N.’s top official in Afghanistan.
“I appeal to the candidates and to their campaigns, and also to the voters, to demonstrate the patience and calm that is required.”
With more fraud allegations surfacing, U.S. officials have toned down their comments and acknowledge it could take some time before the political future of Afghanistan becomes clear.
“We’re really not going to know for several more weeks exactly where we do stand in this process,” U.S. Ambassador Karl Eikenberry said Sunday . “We’re not sure exactly what the level of voter turnout was. Millions turned out to vote, but of course, Taliban intimidation, especially in southern Afghanistan, certainly limited those numbers. But for now, we don’t know, and it’s for us to wait and see and allow this process to move forward,” he said.
Political turmoil in Kabul could not come at a worse time.
The top U.S. military officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, described the situation in Afghanistan as “serious and deteriorating.”
“Afghanistan is very vulnerable in terms of (the) Taliban and extremists taking over again, and I don’t think that threat’s going to go away,” he told.
U.S. and NATO casualties are mounting. At least 37 U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan this month — on track to surpass the July toll, which was the highest monthly total for American forces since the war began in 2001.
With Americans dying in greater numbers, the image of squabbling politicians in Kabul is likely to fuel opposition to the war in the United States — much as television footage of Shiite-Sunni bloodletting undermined the Bush administration’s Iraq war policy in 2006.
Just over 50 percent of respondents to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released this past week said the war in Afghanistan is not worth fighting.
—Agencies